The Daily Procrastinator

This is part 4 of a series of posts looking back at the Marvel/Epic Comics title “The Alien Legion.”

The end of volume one of The Alien Legion would come with the publication of issue 20, much to the surprise of readers.  No warning had been given in the pages of the comic that the series would end, and the letters pages continued to respond to fans’ ideas and praise as if the writers had no end in sight for Nomad Squadron.  Epic had even seen the publication of Alien Legion’s first graphic novel.

Of course, this was the mid-80s, long before the internet would come along and allow comics readers to know about upcoming titles, plot lines, and cancellations.  We were tougher back then, not as spoiled as today’s comic readers – and we all walked three miles uphill in the snow each week for our pull lists – so we were able to blithely read each issue, always sure that we’d see more of Jugger and Sarigar next month.

Perhaps fans should have seen the cancellation coming, though. The last few issues of volume one, admittedly, fell into a bit of a rut, as Nomad Squadron would land on a planet, face a hostile indigenous race, blast the hell out of them because they had no other options, and in the process lose an occasional legionnaire here or there.

It was during this last stretch that the writers would finally introduce female legionnaires, too.  There had been many letters questioning the lack of females in the Legion (and also many saying “keep ‘em out”), and by the time issue 16 came around Nomad Squadron  and readers were introduced to Tamara, a new recruit who is easy on the eyes, but hard on the jaw:

It was, in my opinion, a testament to the writers that they took fan input seriously.  I don’t know that today’s Marvel or DC would adjust their story lines as significantly (hell, even at all) as Epic did, and not make it a patronizing gesture.  Far from it – Tamara would be put through her paces through the next four issues, holding her own and then some when compared with regulars Jugger, Torqa Dun, and Zeerod.  Still, the change in the status quo (and the scenery) wasn’t quite enough to keep The Alien Legion going, and, after a twentieth issue that saw the members of Nomad Squadron forced to hunt one of their own for desertion, with an unsettling conclusion, the letters page closed out with a brief note that surely stunned readers:

The shock wore off quickly, though, as those madcaps at Epic had included another box just below that one:

And so the loyal readers were promised a new Alien Legion series, featuring some familiar faces, and even more new ones, and, as they say, an all new format.   But how would this second volume compare with the first?  Come back next Thursday to find out…